In general, for operators who are exposed to an environment filled with chemicals, the skin contact is an additional path of hazardous exposure other than breathing which permits chemical media to penetrate human bodies. It has been reported that about 40% of vocational diseases are related to skin syndromes. Gloves and protection wears are the prime protection instruments. It is very difficult to prevent hand from touching chemicals during work in plants or laboratories where various chemicals are held. Sometimes workers are required to grasp and merge un-finished products into solvent while wearing gloves when automated manufacturing equipment is unavailable. In such a case, the information about the solubility of the glove material in a specific solvent and the expiration of effective protection should be known. Generally, some test information, e.g., breakthrough time, permeation rate, and suitability in a specific solvent, are listed in a portion of the glove and wears. However some products lack the test information or are not included in a list of chemicals that show the compatibility to solvents and the expiration time of those gloves for multi-chemical media applications. It is not practical in terms of the cost and technical difficulties to have a complicated testing facility in the working positions or laboratories to test the solubility of gloves in the applied solvent.
A generally utilized technique is shown in FIG. 1, which indicates the side view of a permeation test chamber. This technique was published in the ASTM yearbook as "The Standard Testing Approach for Permeation Resistance of Material for Protection Wears Against Liquid or Gas under Continuous Contact," and with a designation code of F739. The first figure in this report is a sealed test chamber (as shown in FIG. 1), which was fixed by screws. When it is in use, the chamber was erected which resulted in an uneven permeation for the tested specimen. The permeation rate is faster on the bottom than on the top, because the solvent is likely to be more concentrated on the lower portion of the chamber. Thereof, it would also cause leakage of solvent in the connection regions of the chamber. Furthermore, the aforesaid method merely illustrates the test chamber without clarifying the measurement of testing time. According to some literature, if the test method is different, the permeation time cannot be compared.